Can I See Right Through You?

Can I see right through you?

Ephesians 5:8-14

Well here we are 4 weeks from Easter. Just 4 weeks until kids are on sugar highs and spring will have been completely sprung and summer will be right around the corner.

But, we are not there yet. We are on the Lenten journey with a long way to go if you are taking the trip seriously. I know some of you are and I hope that you are finding purpose and meaning as you focus on God.

Are you looking for the full change in the weather? Right not it seems like one day it is full spring and the next mild winter. It is interesting how just a few degrees can make such a difference in our outlook of a day. A few degrees can make the difference in a really good day and a bad day.

How many have heard the statement, “They are as different as day and night.”?

Isn’t that our perception of good and bad days? Sometimes we say that about people. Sometimes, I describe my children like that. Different view points and habits. Different responses to good and bad situations. It is especially obvious in school work. .

In our scripture today Paul is using this same kind of contrast between day and night when he is speaking of the old life without Christ as compared to the new life in Christ. In this scripture Paul is speaking to believers when he says, “You were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord.”

He is saying that before we come to Christ we are dead in our trespasses and sins. We are in darkness and don’t have a clue that we are dead to the true way to a blessed life. We are without any light at all and are content to be in darkness.

We are content to live for today and have no real hope for tomorrow. What is the use, life for today for tomorrow we die?

That is the slogan for people living in darkness. It is the slogan for many of the people in our world. A life in darkness is a life without hope. Night limits our vision; it mutes the colors it limits our ability to move freely.

But then something happens to a person that finds a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We have by God’s grace been made “light in the Lord.” Because Jesus came to save us we are in Christ and we are now people of light, People of the Day.

Why is this “light” terminology used? Jesus said, “I AM the light of the world.” We who were once children of darkness have now become children of light. We have gone from night to day.

The Lenten Season is a time to evaluate our lives and our relationship with God.

Are we living as children of light should be living?

Are we shining brightly in a darkened world or have we grown so dim that we can hardly be distinguished from non-Christians?

I Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praise of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light.”

This is the same theme perhaps with an even greater connection to responsibility…We are chosen.

I think back to a time when I wanted to be chosen. Picking sides for a game, baseball or dodge-ball.

I wanted to be picked. Then we seem to loose that desire, when you get the letter for jury duty. Perhaps some special responsibility of leadership makes us ant to run and hide.

It often seems to carry over into our church life; many times we put ourselves down by saying, “Oh, I’m just a nobody. I don’t have enough faith. I’m just an ‘ordinary run-of-the-mill Christian’. I’ve done my part. Don’t have any talents and can’t do much for the Lord...”

That’s not scriptural. Each of us has been called to live different lives from those who are stumbling around in darkness and sin.

We are to live in a way that is as different as night and day.

We have the responsibility to show up in the world by living a contrasting way of life--by showing that Christ really does make a difference in how we live our daily lives. Wherever we go we can cast an illuminating beam of light into the dark corners and be a positive influence on those who are still in darkness.

In order to do this Paul says in Romans 12, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Change your dark outlook into one of optimism and light.